Kindergarten-2nd August 8-9, 2015 Joshua and Jericho Numbers 22; Proverbs 3:5-6 God is in control. Connect Time (15 minutes): Five minutes after the service begins, split kids into groups and begin their activity. Large Group (30 minutes): Begin 20 minutes after the service starts. Model what it looks like to be engaged in large group. Remember, this month we re talking about some crazy Bible stories to help spark kids interest in the Bible (not to mention showing them some great truths about God). We re calling the series Believe It or Not! Small Group (15 minutes): Keep kids in small groups until parents arrive. If you all have extra time at the end, you can review the video and songs together. As kids leave, remind them to open up their trumpets and show their parents how they d like God to help them this week. Today, we re talking about how Joshua faced a huge problem that only God could help him with. God told Joshua exactly what to do, and Joshua did it, even though it didn t make sense. God helped Joshua in an amazing way because God is in control and can do anything!
GOAL: Connect Time is all about engaging kids in an activity that allows them to connect with each other right away while simultaneously piquing their curiosity for Large Group and preparing their minds for what they re going to hear. BREAK DOWN A WALL *You can do this as a large group or break into smaller groups. Place a pile of building materials in the center of each group. Use items already found in your room: This could be blocks, Legos, a Jenga game, or anything else stackable, even pillows or wadded up pieces of paper. Make it fun! Ask kids to build a wall as tall as they can; only rule is that they all have to help! Lead them in walking around it and yelling Fall down! Fall down! Stop and ask: o Why isn t it falling? How can we make it fall? Have fun knocking it down! Clean up and prepare for Large Group. As you wait, ask kids to tell you the craziest thing that happened to them this week! Before you go to Large Group, you can also remind kids of the expectations for Large Group behavior: (1) be kind, (2) listen when somebody speaks, and (3) follow the leader s instructions.
1 Goal: Kids will (1) retell the story of Joshua and Jericho and (2) understand that God can do anything because he is in control Why? When we realize how powerful God is, we want to obey him, even when it doesn t make sense. Tip: When you finish up the coloring page, you can either reenact as small groups or make it a big whole-group production! Decide as a team how you d like to do it. REVIEW THE STORY 1. Why was Jericho so hard to fight? (strong wall surrounded it) 2. Who told Joshua how to win the battle of Jericho? (God appearing as a soldier) 3. What did God tell Joshua to do to make the walls fall? (March around the city every day for six days; on the seventh day, march around seven times; then the priests will blow trumpets and everyone should shout) 4. What happened to the walls when the people obeyed? (they fell) 5. How did they fall? (God is in control) MAKE IT PERSONAL Give each kid a piece of yellow construction paper Have them draw a picture of God helping them with something hard (they can refer to the ideas they came up with during Large Group; also give them hints like God helping them to share their toys, obey their parents, tell the truth, make a new friend, be brave in the dark, etc.) Then roll up the pictures like trumpets and place a small piece of tape on the side to hold it, like this: *Pray together, asking God to help kids this week. Then give kids a coloring page. If you still have extra time, build a wall again (like Connect Time) and reenact the story using your trumpets!
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1 There s a spot for you to have kids reenact marching around a few blocks while you play a trumpet sound byte. Feel free to adapt this to fit your room (you can get more kids involved, just do it yourself, etc.). To help with pacing, each section has been assigned an approximate time. This will vary slightly per person/room but try to use it to make sure you allow time for all the Large Group components, including worship. You should be leading about 29 min. from beginning to end, which means Large Group takes a little over 30 minutes when you include transitions. WELCOME AND CONNECT TO CONNECT TIME (3 min.) Hi everybody! Welcome to Kids Club. It s great to see you here. I saw you guys all doing something really silly in your rooms. You built a tower and then you tried to yell at it to make it fall down. Why is that silly? (Let kids respond.) That s right! Knocking it down worked a lot better. And it sounds like some of you did some really crazy things this week too. Who wants to share something really crazy or silly that happened to you? (Let 3-5 kids share.) Those are pretty silly. Want to know the craziest thing that happened to me? (Share the craziest part of your week.) BELIEVE IT OR NOT! INTRO (2 min.) Well there are lots of crazy things in this world and some of them are hard to believe, even though they re true. Today, we re going to watch a video of a chimp who can do something pretty cool. Let s take a look: as you watch, see what he can do! Video: Skateboarding Chimp Whoa, what can he do? (Let kids say: skateboard.) Yep, and he can skateboard better than I can! Does anybody in here have a pet who can skateboard? (Let kids respond.) I didn t think so! JOSHUA AND JERICHO (6 min.) (Show image of desert.) We ve been talking about God s family. They were stuck as slaves in Egypt and God sent Moses to lead them out of Egypt and toward an amazing land he promised them. For forty years, they wandered in the Sinai desert, which is the desert in this picture. God took care of them though, and eventually they got ready to get into the Promised Land. The problem is, when they got to the Promised Land, there were people living there already.
And these people had a BIG city with BIG walls. There was no way to knock these walls down. God s family the Israelites were going to need God s help. Can God help us? (Let kids say: Yes!) Yes! With anything? (Let kids say: Yes!) Yes! And God DID help them with the walls but he did it in a crazy way. We re going to watch a video about what happened. As you watch, see if you can figure out the crazy way God helped his family. Video: God s Story / Jericho Wow, so how did God help his family? (Let kids respond. They may have several responses. Then summarize for them.) That s right, He came as a soldier and actually met Joshua! Then He told Joshua how to tear down those walls. The thing is He wanted them to march around the walls, blow trumpets and yell. GOD IS IN CONTROL (5 min.) But that was probably confusing. After all, did yelling knock down our walls during Connect Time? (Let kids say: No.) Nope. And do you think adding a trumpet, even a ram s horn trumpet like the one he used (click to show ram s horn slide with sound effect), would help? (Let kids say: No.) Let s try it! I need three volunteers to be priests. Everybody else is the Israelites, God s special family. (Stack the three blocks and choose three kids to volunteer to come up and pretend to blast trumpets. Click to play another ram s horn slide with sound effect and have the kids mimic it; then ask the crowd to shout. Then let the priests be seated.) Great try but that doesn t work for us. Did yelling, marching and blowing trumpets work for the Israelites? (Let kids say: Yes.) It sure did! Why? (Let kids respond.) Yep, because God wanted it to. God tore down those walls! God is in control which means he can do ANYTHING he wants to do. If He tells us to yell at a wall to get it to fall, we should obey and trust him. FOLLOWING GOD VERSE (5 min.) Our verse for this month can help us remember that we can trust God because he s in control. It s Proverbs 3:5-6 and it says this: Proverbs 3:5-6: Trust in the LORD with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take. How about learning some motions? (Lead kids in learning the following motions.) Proverbs 3:5-6 (hold up 3 fingers, then 5, then 6) Trust in the LORD (point up) with all your heart; - (put your hand over your heart) do not depend (shake your finger no ) on your own understanding. (point to your head) Seek his will in all you do, - (fold your hands as if in prayer)
and he will show you which path to take. (spread hands out, palms up) Great job, everybody! (Repeat if you have time. Then connect to the story:) If Joshua had depended on his own understanding, he would have known that shouting and blowing trumpets does NOT knock down walls. But instead he obeyed God, and since God is in control, the walls fell down. PRAY AND RESPOND (5 min.) Let s take a minute and talk to God, which is called praying. In your head, think of something you want His help with. (Give kids a moment to think. Tell them to put their hand over their heart when they think of something.) Now, while the next song plays, ask God to do it and ask him to give you all that you need. Use this time to talk to Him. Song: KC Acoustic / All That You Need (Midway through, you can encourage kids to start signing along or even ask them to stand up!) WORSHIP (3 min.) Now let s tell God we love him, which is called worship. One way to worship God is by telling him we trust him. We all have things that scare us and things we need help with. Let s tell God that his love is bigger than any fear and we believe HE is in control! Song: Love Beats Fear *Dismiss kids to small groups
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Per room Use items from room to build a wall (specific recommendations in lesson) no supplies needed Per kid 1 piece of yellow construction paper coloring page Per group Markers 1 Bible Roll of clear tape or stapler Bible 3 cardboard brick blocks 1. Slide: Believe It or Not! loop 2. Song slide: for when kids enter the room (All that You Need instrumental; mp3 only; can be downloaded on website) 3. Video: Skateboarding chimp (https://vimeo.com/28025948) 4. Image: desert 5. Video: God s Story: Joshua and Jericho 6. Image/sound: ram s horn with trumpet sound (trumpet sound should be 2:06-2:19 of this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vl9sfko AfcQ) 7. Image/sound (AGAIN): ram s horn with trumpet sound 8. SLIDE: Proverbs 3:5-6: Trust in the LORD with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take. 9. Music Video: All That I Need KC Acoustic (https://vimeo.com/106958575; please cut off the first 1:11!!) 10. Music Video: Love Beats Fear (https://vimeo.com/113716523) 11. Slide: Believe It or Not! loop Tell me about Joshua and Jericho. How did the walls of Jericho fall down? Daily Talk Starts separate document